


Dancing Without Toes

by Natsuru



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: I don't know what I'm doing, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 08:04:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15636612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natsuru/pseuds/Natsuru
Summary: They hate each other. Neither knew why, or how, they just knew that they did. But no matter how different they think they are, they are more similar than they could possibly imagine.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I know I deleted this the first time, but things have been getting hectic at school, and I just gave up. So, since now I know I'm not responsible enough to update on a regular basis, I will say this: Read at your own risk, because I'm writing for mine. Just couldn't get it out of my head ;P

Asano Gakushuu may have never uttered a curse word in his life, but the argument of Akabane Karma was still standing and making an extremely tempting offer, coming straight from the licking flames in hell, from the red-headed devil himself.

The princely strawberry blonde took a few tense steps forwards toward the announcement board. The students that surrounded him stared on in awe as they parted to allow him a look, flowing to the sides and cracking open a path like the parted red sea. 

He knew that for the past few years he had been glorified for almost every breath he took, every step he moved, but the moment he saw the results pinned on to the aged bark of the cork board, he knew that none of it was valid. He also knew that he was going to have more than just one demon coming after him for this little slip-up.

For on those snow white pages meticulously pinned up, written in black was Akabane Karma’s name sitting over his in contempt.

With a rush of an unknown something in his insides that made him almost break out in a cold sweat in front of the judging eyes of the many misguided people, he turned on his heel with narrowed eyes, leaving the scene as quickly as he had arrived. Everyone continued to fixate on him with their eyes, as if he were walking on water, but Gakushuu knew that he didn’t deserve it.

The only people who weren’t as blind as the rest of their peers towards Gakushuu’s current convictions were the Virtuosos, but they couldn’t find it in themselves to follow him to a place that he had never been to before, because even if they weren’t blind they still needed glasses. 

Akabane is a genius. 

Opinion.

Akabane is an asshole.

Opinion.

Akabane is a genius asshole.

Opinion.

He was going to be given hell later for this.

Fact.

He was feeling mad.

Fact. 

No one could get him out of this.

Fact.

Drawing in a deep breath, he increased his pace, wanting to get out of this hell hole. He knew no one actually thought of him that way, but the shadows on the walls weren’t what they seemed to be before, the opinions of the people around him may not be what they seemed before, and Akabane Karma getting first place over him during an official examination had zero precedent.

Yes, it was still bright outside, but school was over and he could go home, he needed to go home, because he had no idea what mental state he was in right now and that means that he has no way to control it. If he were to ever have been found escalating a bad situation into a worse one, then instead of being beat, by the end of the night he would be dead.

The brighter it was, the easier it was for shadows to form. They didn’t hide any skeletons because he didn’t have any. The only thing they did was drag him into it because he knew that he would be all alone when it came down to everything other than his standing in this school.

Maybe that was why he felt like cursing.

 

 

It was a good day for Akabane Karma. Results had been released today and he had been ecstatic to see his. Acquiring full marks meant that, in regard to Asano Jr., he either could have thoroughly embarrassed him or shown that he was at least a worthy rival, someone of the same standing

So yes, all in the day’s work for Karma.

Knowing he did good, he packed his bag and left school early. He usually skipped anyways, and he was already got the results he wanted do there was nothing standing in his way that day.

Maneuvering through the jungle that separated his classroom form the rest of the school, he practically had to jump around just to avoid the poisonous snakes that littered the floor. Though it didn’t leave him sweating, it was annoying for someone as talented as him to have to go through such tiring things everyday in a school that was supposed to value talent. A school that supposedly did.

The forest was a beautiful place, ignoring the snakes and all. Nature calmed him, it gave him a sense of freedom. Nature was never restrained, but the catch was that humanity always was. It was unruly, and under no one;s control, just like him. 

He liked nature. Not just for what it was but for what it represented, because the lower the levels, the more freedom you have. With glory, comes power, but with it comes restraint, something that he was not okay with. 

Could he possibly go out a limb to say something embarrassingly philosophical about Karma being a part of nature? 

Yes he could. 

In his mind. 

Because no matter how philosophical it was, it was embarrassingly.

The pores in the canopy above him had drops of sunlight leaking through, dripping down and landing on the parched ground below his feet, soaking the earth with its glow. Some landed on him, illuminating his ethereal figure. This forest had the beauty of the night sky, the green above shading some, while the only holes in its beauty only enhanced the experience like bright stars dotting the night skies.

He may have seemed a little out of place there, what with the mismatch of red and green, but, he didn’t care. He was enjoying himself.

Okay, maybe he didn’t find walking back as annoying as he had said he would.

Though he wasn’t sure how long it had been since he left the classroom, he knew that it had at least been a few hours and this was the time where the rest of the classes would be released.

Maybe he would be able to get some sort of reaction out of Asano Jr. That would be interesting.

What would be a shame would be if the student body president had already left, taking those delicious reactions along with him. The thoughts that were running through his head at that very moment only served to prove how much he deserved to be called a devil.

He squinted slightly as the sun pierced through the steadily lessening green and into his eyes. Having had to adjust to the sudden barrage of brightness, his hand went up in retaliation against the evil sunlight, the strong contrast between the level of brightness in and out of the forest having given him a great disadvantage.

There was probably no one around as he had swatted at the bushes around him, annoyance thrummed deep in his veins at the neverending onslaught of leaves getting in his face.

When the fight against nature was over, and he looked ahead catching his breath, he saw something he had never expected to see.

“ Asano.”

A pair of sharp violet eyes staring back at him in shock.

Only, he was sure his were betraying the same emotion.

 

 

Gakushuu sped past the scenery in an instant, and if you didn’t look closely, it would seem as if he were running instead of speed walking. It felt as if the people around him had their eyes locked onto his mistakes, scanning him thoroughly. It felt as if they had known that he had lost to Akabane, a delinquent, a good for nothing, a devil, the devil.

Logically speaking, most of the people who knew him were students, students who stayed back to crowd around the old bulletin board just for a quick peak at what their social standing had risen or fallen to. The people around him didn’t know what it was that happened or care enough to find out.

That didn’t stop the feeling of being watched from creeping up on him though, that tiny voice in his head that kept screaming at him in frustration, telling him the had to be a stronger, smarter, and overall better version of himself to be worthy of the opinions that had been burdened upon his shoulders.

So he took a different route, one where there was no one. Now he didn’t have a need to spend the entire trip back trying to convince himself that no one knew him and that no one was judging him. Because this time, there simply was no one.

Now, as he walked along the path that had the back door to a row of shops towering over it on the right, he paid little to no attention to the forest that had come up on his left.

That was until he heard a rustle that snapped back his paranoia like a light switch on steroids.

His head whipped over so fast he had both a concussion and whiplash at the same time.

His eyes bore into a pair of mercury pools of shock, exactly what he was feeling, but belonging to someone he had no particular want or urge to see.

“ Asano.”

“ Akabane.”


	2. Chapter 2

His eyes pried wide open in shock, he quickly recovered, shifting his gaze away from the figure in front of him. 

But still, it was unbelievable, he ran into the one person he didn’t want to see that day. 

At that very moment, though Akabane would be unable to see through the iron mask he set onto himself after that accidental unregulated show of shock, he was depressed. Very much so. If his life were one of those anime or manga he never had time to read, his soul would be flying out of his body at that very moment.

In contrast to the expressionless face his had morphed into, Akabane had an expression of contempt slapped on, making Gakushuu feel alot like slapping something else on top of it.

“ Yo. Asano-kun.” With his school bag hanging over his right shoulder lazily, he slinked back into his usual relaxed posture, eyes narrowing with the smile that took over his face. The strawberry blonde had managed to drag his non-existent soul back into his body where it belonged in order to deal with the issue in front of him. 

No matter how far he had fallen, he hadn’t fallen far enough to forget to put up a good fight in front of his rival.

A frown naturally etched itself onto his face as he glared back at Karma.

“ What is it?” he snapped, “ I’m not in the mood to hear you gloat.” Just as he was about tp turn back to the path ahead of him and continue his walk back home, the very same voice that greeted him a moment ago stopped him.

“ Gloat?” Karma stated, bringing a finger to his chin in contemplation. His brain pushing through the facts with near mechanical precision. 

“So I did beat you.” 

The sheer idiocy of the situation made Gakushuu freeze in his tracks. He was beat by someone who didn’t even know that he had? Scratch wanting to laugh at it, it demoralised him. Embarrassment bubbled up in his chest, burning in his stomach, making it slightly harder to breathe as his eyes may or may not have started tearing. Well, if he did, he didn’t cry so no one would have thought otherwise.

He shifted, turning away for a moment to compose himself.

Unable to help himself, he let out a pained laugh that he didn’t bother to regulate.

“ You don’t even know if you did and you call me your rival? Pathetic.” His words in that moment in that moment was a double edged sword. Sure, he was just feeding his megalomania by continuing to speak, but it was more of ‘ How can you consider me you rival? I’m pathetic.’

Having already been distraught by what punishment he may receive later on, Gakushuu was mentally weak against the reminders of his failure. 

“ But I beat you.” The look in the red head’s eyes was sharp, cold, amused, but cut cleanly through him like a knife. 

Anything he had pulled out in the heat of the moment in preparation of retaliation had immediately been shot down along with his defenses, leaving him with a draft of unease creeping along his neck. 

There was a moment of silence, where Gakushuu clenched his fists, fingernails moulding crescent-shaped marks into his soft skin. 

When it ended, he unclenched his fists in defeat. 

“ As much as I would like to continue this extremely enlightening conversation,” he countered, shooting a glance of unadulterated hatred into Akabane’s eyes. “ I have somewhere to be.” 

Hoping that the other would be unable to see the telltale glint in his eyes of any form of dissatisfaction that was currently coursing through his veins, he shifted. 

Taking a gulp, he ignored the disrespect that surely overrun Akabane’s face by now. Breaking eye contact, his heart pounded heavily on the insides of his chest as he turned and walked as fast as he could without running.

Okay, now that he saw the student council president’s figure growing smaller in the distance, school bag at the ready, it left him to wonder what was wrong with him today. Asano had started off at an amazing speed, close to running even, slowing down as distance came between. But why did he want to leave that urgently? Surely not because of him, he never runs from a challenge. 

There was something strange, foreboding even, about the way he turned and ran almost without much of a second thought. It drilled him with suspect, making him wonder of the origins to such strange behaviour. Staring holes into the back of Asano Jrs head, he cocked his to the side in blatant curiosity. 

Karma would like to think that the jabs that had been thrown between them were harmless, because he didn’t feel much hurt by any of the things that had been said. He expected it to be the same the other way around. 

So, when the other had turned around to glare straight at him with an unmistakable glimmer in his eyes, a surge of guilt had overtaken him. However, it disappeared just as quickly as it had manifested. 

Because, well, Asano Jr and emotions? Ha. Tough luck trying to figure out how they fit together. 

They don’t. 

Okay, well at least not to him. 

Those thoughts simply raced past his mind, forgotten right as they appeared. 

At that moment, Karma noticed something brown sticking out of the corner of his vision. 

Dusting some dried leaves off in a hurry, he turned in another direction to walk home. 

When Gakushuu had finally arrived home, he went through his daily motions of meticulously clearing his working space, putting his bag away, and pulling out his work. Neatly setting it down onto his work desk, he entered the toilet on his left for a shower.

It doesn’t matter how he was feeling, a bath is something that can never be forgotten. He would never stand for it if his room began to stink just because he forgot to take a bath. He would berate himself to death. If someone found out, he would die of embarrassment. Both ways lead to death, therefore, the only logical solution was to never put off or neglect a bath. (Yes. Baths are nice. )

 

He made quick work of his clothes, already down to his underwear by the time he had set foot on the cold marble floor of the connected toilet. Catching a glimpse of himself on the mirror, he narcissistically turned to face himself, eyes locking onto the once nasty scar that had faded to a thin white line that rested to the right of his navel. 

He stepped forward, closer to the mirror in order to get a better look at the scar, placing two fingers on the vertical ends so his eyes knew where to look. 

The original wound had been four inches long but somehow managed to squeeze itself into two during the rigorous healing process. He gave a grimace at the slight imperfection marring his body, maybe why he really hated Akabane for beating him in the exams was because he knew what his father would do to him once he found out. 

His his heart gave the slight indication of anxiety before dropping down to his stomach at the thought. 

His father already knew, the only thing to wait for was until he found out. 

As his heart had begun racing in his chest, he slammed his hands down onto the cool marble surface of the sink in front of him, the slap of skin on marble reverberating through the small space as it complemented the weight of his breathing. 

Taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself, he willed away tears for the second time that day and curled his fists, nails scratching at marble because he just wanted to hurt something other himself. 

But what did it matter? Even if he did, it wouldn’t make the pain stop. It wouldn’t make his father stop. All this? The need to uphold the Asano name? The need to live without mistakes, to be perfect? It wouldn’t go away even if he did. 

Even if he did hurt himself over it, even if he did mulling over it, even if he spent the rest of the night sobbing his lungs out about how unfair life was instead of doing something more productive; studying, resting, exercising; nothing would change. 

That was why he screwed his eyes tightly shut, and waited for the tears to go away, the fears to dissipate and the emotions to dull. He was enough of a waste of space as it is, wasting anymore time would just make him more frustrated, leaving him to wonder why he couldn’t be more efficient. 

So he straightened up and jumped into the shower without a second thought, letting his thought drift into nothingness as the cool water rippled down his body, calming him. 

A defeated sigh escaped his lips. 

For now, it was better to just accept things for the way they were. 

Towelling his dripping locks, he stepped out of the bathroom in his pajamas. The room around him was extremely neat with not a hair out of place, looking more like a store room than where someone would live. But this was how he did, so he sat down at his desk, silence ringing painfully loud in his ears as the scratch of pens and pencils on paper did nothing to drown out the sound.

Gakushuu was not aware that time was flying past him at such a high speed, that it was nightfall before he knew it. The only thing that had snapped him out of this impromptu study fest was the sound of the main gate opening crashing into his eardrums. He continued to stare at the assessment sheet in front of him, mind blank as he lifted the pen off, stopping mid-sentence. His engine stalled for a few moments before he had finally decided to go check who it was. He knew who it probably was, but it was better not to guess right?

The chair dragged back with a loud screech, as the pen was set down with a light tap that was barely audible by contrast. He made mechanical steps as he moved closer to the grey drawn curtains that protected him from the scouring gazes from the endlessly peering outside world.

The metal rings had a fight with the bar it set on, screeching loudly as it retreated with a slight movement of his had. The grey curtains folded along the creases, giving way to the sight of a jet black Maserati pulling over past the large gate of the Asano house. His sharp bright eyes dulled the moment they caught a glimpse of the person behind the wheel.

Asano Gakuho looked up at Gakushuu’s window, unintentionally locking eyes with the boy. Gakushuu’s heart dropped down into his stomach as he froze, breath caught in his throat, worried that any movement may be taken to be disrespect, leading to further repercussions. 

When his father broke eye contact, he had taken it as a chance to quickly turn away from his scrutinising view, shoving the curtains close with renewed vigor, breaths heavy. 

Quick steps marched along the marble floor as he stepped over to the sink in his connected toilet, bowing down to drench his face with the cool water. For a moment, the only sound to be heard was the calm consistent running of the tap. The water that hit ceramic split apart with a crystal scream that did nothing to calm him. 

What notified him of his impending doom was the sharp sound of an alert arriving on his iphone snapping him out of his reverie, drawing in a deep breath for courage as he moved back to his desk to check the message.

Asano Gakuho:  
My office. Now.

Gakushuu’s blood ran cold in his veins, chills striking him straight to the bone as he stared. He didn’t know how long he did, but by the time he had snapped himself out of it, he knew he had to leave or he would receive an even worse punishment..

Locking the screen, he dropped his iphone face down on the dark wood of his study table, slinking out of the room in a hurry.

The house was large, the walk long enough that he would drown himself in the tension, the suspense, but too short to drag his limp body out of it. His shoes gave the same disciplined clack on the marble floor that it did in school, shattering any thoughts that could even attempt to sneak its way into his brain, leaving his mind blank as he obeyed the order, continuing to make his way over.

The tall oak door to his father’s study towered above him like a castle on steroids, sizing him up like one of those over protective body guards at the entrance of every most likely illegal club. Not that he had ever been to one, he just stared in from outside sometimes, pushing down the envy leeching on his systems at the freedom the people who rushed in and out received. Forget getting in, just having enough time to waste queueing outside for multiple hours in a row already made him green at the prospect of doing the same.

With slight hesitation, he raised his fist up to the door, giving two firm raps as he drew in a breath to compose himself. It wouldn’t be that bad, he told himself. But he knew that wasn’t true, so he told himself again, even if it was bad, it couldn’t have been worse than anything he had gone through in the past right?

Well, he was wrong.

“ Come in.” The voice boomed out in a authoritative, commanding tone. Well, better now than never, right?

Wrong. Never sounded better.

A firm push on the door caused it to creak open with a creepy groan, letting light filter into the dimly lit room, only serving to accentuate all the eerie corners of the study. He squared his shoulders and walked forward with as much confidence as he could force himself to exude, the clicks of his heels on the floor signaling his existence was extinguished without a second though as it muffled itself on the dull carpet of the floor.

The air was stale, and it was quiet. Too quiet as he shut the door behind him with a second screech.

Another moment of silence had set in after the door clicked shut.

He could hear his own breathing, each individual heart beat, now he just stood there and hoped that his father couldn’t.

The sudden movement that his father made, shooting up in his armchair, dragging it back heavily while it gave a muffled scream against the carpet made him give an unintentional jolt, tossing his mask of confidence out the proverbial window.

“ Asano-kun.” 

His voice wasn’t as loud or commanding as it was before. Now, all it lacked was impact, but made up for it plently when it came to intimidation. It was gentle, patronising, but promised a lot of pain in the very near future.

The pressure stacked onto him sealed him in his place, as he obeyed. 

With a few calculated stepes, his father snaked around the desk and stood in front of him about a metre away, violet eyes locked onto him with a piercing gaze.

Despite his earlier planned bravado, he didn’t dare to look Gakuho(e) in the eye.

Before Gakushuu could even afford to blink, Gakuho disappeared from in front of him in a blur, leg kicked out and cracking like a whip as it drove into the side of his left knee, bringing him to the ground.

Still the very picture of composure, Gakuho dusted off his clothes while his gaze burned Gakushuu unwaveringly. Gakushuu could feel a wave of embarrassment coarse through him, of all things to down him, a simple kick was all it took? From the very man he had sworn to defeat?

His knee burned along with the blood boiling in his veins, giving way to a sharp pain if he so much as shifted. Not broken, just sprained. Very, very badly.

He tried to get up, he really did, but the pain made him hesitate the slightest bit.

“ Get Up.” His father had stated coldly.

His heart beat faster because he knew that he had to push through the pain to follow, or he may die here.Shifting to kneel on his wobbly left knee, he grit his teeth and ignored the searing pain that ripped through the joint as slammed his right foot on the ground, using both hands to prop himself up on his stable, uninjured, leg.

“ I-” For a moment, his brain stalled, affected by the feeling of a curling iron being shoved straight through his knee- “ I apologise for the degrading act sir, it won’t happen again, I won’t embarrass you a-”

Gakuho’s shin dug right back into the same area it had hit before.

He choked out a heavy cough, hacking out his dignity, burying it under the carpet he once again kneeled on. This time, he didn’t dare to get up.

His palms hurt as the coarse carpete dug into them harshly, seeming to drag him down, weighing on him to listen, to obey, not to resist. The pride his father had instilled in him from a young age was currently fighting a fierce battle against his well-trained sense of self-preservation. Well, considering he didn’t move an inch from where he fell on the ground, his sense of self-preservation had won by a large margin.

“ To think you bear the Asano name.” Gakuho practically spat out at his son, circling him like a vulture, eyeing him like a lion that hadn’t eaten in days.

“ Worthless.” the toe of his father’s hard office shoe stabbed him harshly as he fell over like a ragdoll from the impact.

“ Useless.” A kick was sent straight to his stomach, forcing up the food he had earlier today, leaving a bitter aftertaste in the back of his throat. He knew that dirtying his father’s carpet would only bring more punishment, so he forced himself to keep it down.

“ Waste.”

“ Of.”

“ Space.”

At this point, the younger struggled to breathe, the air felt thick, unmoving, like there was a pair of imaginary hands wrapping tightly against his slender throat,, easily crushing his windpipe, cutting off the supply of blood to his brain; His father was showing signs of fatigue after his hits, proving that a large amount of power that was thrown into the hits.

A business-like ringtone had suddenly cut through the stale air like a hot knife through butter.

There was a moment more of silence before his Gakuho spoke.

“ Leave.”

Gakushuu hastily scrambled to his feet, giving a quick bow of respect as he ignored the burning pain he felt all over, he rushed out of the room.

As he stepped out it finally felt like he could breathe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I write more easily when exams are coming because the stress gives me a reason to take a break XD. But in all honesty, Maths and Chinese messed me up so bad. It was to the point that at the end, I nearly wrote: "Like hot butter through a knife."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends!! Thanks for the comments, they make me so... happy ;^; (sniffle)  
> @aliciaalyss : I just realised that I'm probably going to have to write lemons but have no idea how to. Though, I'd see Karma as more of an eros Yuuri, because, to me the most important thing in their relationship is the power struggle, as it always is with rivals!! Like, you know, because they have too much pride, and care a lot about their image. And I agree with you that Karma would be bottom, mainly because, Gakushuu seems to me like the type of maladaptive perfectionist that is secretly hating himself for every single flaw (which doesn't exist because he is perfect.) In my opinion, he wouldn't enjoy himself in a situation where is isn't control, it might freak him out.
> 
> Anyways, AHHHHHHHH exams are over. I AM HAPPY. Very much so. I'll try to post more often (-^-)

Akabane Karma felt kind of weirded out.

This was the person who didn’t care. About anyone or anything, though you could probably make him reluctantly admit with a fierce blush that he did care about his friends.

But if you were to ask anyone who knew him whether he cared about people in general, their answer would be no. He didn’t care.

If they were hurt or suffering, he would laugh in their face. Most of the time, he would be the one causing the hurt and or suffering.

If he wanted something, he would use those people to get what he wanted. He would dig up whatever it was that they want it, and use it to get what he wanted.

That was precisely why he was weirded out for feeling this strange sense on concern for his rival.

He never really hated the strawberry-blonde, he just found it fun to rile him up and learnt that the best way to do that was to make him mad, mess with him. After all, Asano Jr. was so calm when the topic concerned anything other than his large ego.

Though he had no right to speak since he was the same. He had an ego as big as the sun. And since he did, he would go out a limb to say that Asano Jr. was a close second, having an ego as big as the moon.

But that wasn’t why he was feeling weirded out, in fact, the large ego, megalomania and condescending tone of speech was expected, normal even. Which was why when Karma saw him after, worried for something, ashamed, with a weaker bite to his voice than there was before, he began to worry, he began to think that there was something seriously wrong with his rival.

But he didn’t know why.

Though, he wanted to know why.

The question that had popped up in his head left him reeling. Karma wasn’t the one who was hurt, Asano was, but why? Why did he keep asking why? Did this mean he cared enough about Asano to ask himself about him in his room, alone, when he had better things to do, like his homework, so that Koro-sensei wouldn’t kill him tomorrow? If so, why did he care?

He just couldn’t understand.

For once in his life, he felt confused.

He let out a sigh of defeat, pushing the image of the unmistakable glint of tears that shielded Asano’s eyes into the darker recesses of his rotting mind. Rotting because his brain was over heating from thinking this much.

When he snapped back to reality, it wasn’t anything better than his confusion, the only reason why he did so is because he didn’t want to die when the heat from his malfunctioning brain spread to the rest of his body and denatured all of his enzymes thereby slowly killing him from the inside as his cells begin to burst sizzle and combust.

The fact that he even thought that was possible meant something.

Contrary to popular belief, Karma was a rich kid. His parents were Day Traders, so at least if they didn’t have enough love to stay with him, they left him with more than enough money to make up for it. No one in school would ever expect that He came from a wealthy family. People who were raised in a family like his tended to be more uptight, to care more about their image, or a least enough about their image to try to take care of it.

Like Asano.

No. Banish the thought.

He stepped out of his room, already used to the ear piercing silence that the hallway would always greet him with. The cleaner would come once a week so the house remained in its pristine condition, waiting for the day that his parents returned. The house wasn’t alive so it would never run out of patience, but he did, a long time ago.

Whenever he walked down the stairs into the living room, he felt a chill run down his spine. He was one person who didn’t need a large living space. His room, of course, was filled to the brim with his things, sometimes messy, sometimes surprisingly organised.

The rest of the house however, remained untouched. His parents had originally hired a maid to take care of him. Before, when he still held some hope, he thought that it was guilt that was finally beginning to creep up their necks, threatening to drive them mad if they didn’t do something, but they didn’t. She only served as a reminder about how he was waiting for something that never actually came.

So he had them fire her. She was gone and he had the house all to himself again.

He didn’t need anyone to take care of him, he was smart enough to convince his parents so. He learned how to cook with Youtube, that was enough. (Ahem, he may or may not have messed up the kitchen a few times trying out vague Shokugeki no Souma recipes.)

Over the years he learnt how to make meals without messing up the kitchen. He had to replace the stoves and over a few times in the process but he he did it. His math was really good though so he didn’t know why he didn’t just calculate the numbers. It wasn’t until he picked up his secondary school textbook that he was able to calculate the moles of each ingredient required for a specific reaction. (Chemistry is the best, home economics too, he loves that.)

He just whipped up a quick batch of food sat down at the table to eat. By himself. Again.

He kind of wished he brought something else down to keep his attention, because right now, it was finding a way to drift away from him and back in the direction of a certain teary-eyed student council president. Honestly, he gave up trying.

He was Akabane Karma, if he wanted to do something, there was no one stopping him, he wasn’t afraid of any consequences. So, if he wanted to think something, why the hesitation?

He found it strange how he could have sworn Asano looked like he was about to cry, but there was no other explanation as to why his eyes were moist and shiny, or why he practically ran away from their conversation at the end. He was embarrassed? But would that be enough to make him cry?

There must be something else right?

Fear, disgust, self-deprecation? Something stronger to affecting and tear off that well formed mask of his like one of those three. This is so hard on his brain. The main thing he found hard to process was the fact that Asano was crying. Not sobbing with full out tears but that was probably the closest he would ever get to it.

Again, Karma didn’t hate him, so he felt a bit guilty. The bit of guilt that washed over him burning through his throat as it bubbled over his chest made him feel uncomfortable.

He bit his lip in annoyance.

He must have gone too far in his teasing. With how uptight Asano was, his father was probably really strict or something, he must have been brought up to expect perfection or something else to hone his unnaturally high standards. He must have already been really disappointed before Karma got to him.

He finished his meal and went back upstairs with a plan in mind.

A plan to find a way to subtly apologize to the strawberry blonde without going too out of character.

When he set his mind on something, first, that something would spontaneously combust, burn, crumple, fold over on itself and eventually, being unable to take the heat of Karma’s threat of completion, it just, gets done.

First he needed a way to apologize. To do that he would need to determine the extent of Asano’s anger.

Okay, first task already seems impossible, but, who cares? Let’s do it.

 

Somewhere else in Japan ….

Gakushuu attempted to retain as much dignity as he possibly could, making painful steps to his room. Each move burned. Each twitch of his muscles could have permanently impaired his sense of pain.

He nearly collapsed on the bed in relief when he arrived at his room. But he didn’t because he couldn’t. Running to the toilet, he pulled up the seat, letting it click against the porcelain behind as he retched his guts out into the toilet bowl.

He should probably conduct himself with more grace.

Not like his father would stop hitting him even if he did.

His throat burned from the warm stomach acid that washed up and around it, staying long enough to hurt before it gathering at the bottom of the toilet bowl.

Why was it like this? He couldn’t remember a time when it wasn’t like this. Even when his mother was still with them, before she so cold heartedly abandoned them, he remembered getting beaten.

Snippets of hiding away in small cramped areas for extended periods of time came rushing back to him. Holding his breath as he stared through small cracks as the scene of his mother’s torture had unfolded before him. He was just as helpless then as he was now.

Even then, he couldn’t blame the woman, he should commend her. To have been able to leave without consequence was not a simple feat, especially when performed against his father. If that was what he remembered to be hell, he couldn’t possibly imagine how bad it had been for his mother who had taken the brunt of Gakuho’s beatings.

Actually maybe he could.

It probably felt exactly like he did now.

Probably.

Anger and injustice against both himself and the situation. Part of him was mad at himself for not doing something. Another heavily abused part of his brain wondered if he actually deserved it.

But even if he did do something wrong and he was being punished for it, who was punishing his father for punishing him? Was it his fault that Akabane was just better? He had been working his whole life for this and Akabane had beat him in a short Semester’s worth of work. How was that fair?

How could he be blamed for being stupid?

He still couldn’t stop that dark corner of his mind telling him that he was stupid, that it was his fault and that he couldn’t do anything about it.

It hurt.

And it didn’t make sense.

But when did self-criticism ever make sense? It never did.

Ignoring the self-deprecation was the only thing he could do to prevent himself from killing himself right then and there, but that only brought forth the other half of the reason for his lament.

Anger.

This was Akabane’s fault. He beat me cold heartedly. Sure he worked for it, but because of it, it caused Gakushuu pain. It could be said that he worked to case Gakushuu pain. Well of course he would, Karma hated him. Karma wouldn’t care if whatever he said made his depressed enough to kill. Himself.

If that were to ever happen, Karma would dance around on top of his grave, rejoicing the death of one of his most hated people. He probably wasn’t even number one on is hate list because he was that insignificant. He could just imagine his cold dead body being dug out of its grave by his ankles, head dragging painfully on the hard ground as his body would be torn apart piece by piece, cut down and thrown into a nearby sewer to rot.

His thoughts were dark. So dark.

Damn it, he has to stop this.

He shot up on his bed. Determined.

But, Owwwww, he nearly forgot about the wounds.

Oh well, he was on a war path now, a little twinge of pain wasn’t going to stop him and neither were laws.

Okay, maybe it was best to avoid breaking any laws.

He left for his computer and started searching the net for ways to exact revenge but the only results that came up were on petty pranks that would never be up to his standard. In other words, the internet was useless, he had to form his own plan.

First he had to observe Akabane. If he found out the things that he did during his breaks and off times, the people who were with him, the things he ate, his habits, things he came into contact with, Gakushuu would be able to plan the perfect murde- oops, no killing. Revenge it is.

Yes, killing is no good. He would have nowhere to put the body.

Besides, his father would kill him if the school would be held responsible for his funeral, no one wants to give their money away no matter how much they may have, especially to pay for the funerary services of Akabane’s death.

Day 1:

Gakushuu spent the day in class impatiently spinning his pencil in his hand, thinking of the stalking he would have to pull off later to find out more about Akabane. Somehow, his teachers were so blinded by their own adoration for him that their his inattention merely slid by undetected under the noses of their biased views.

He couldn’t wait for the day to be over, and he didn’t even want to admit that he might be the slightest bit excited to act as if he were starring in a spy movie. He wasn’t. But if he were, he would definitely pull it off perfectly. After all, it’s Gakushuu.

What should he do to make sure he doesn’t get seen? He knew that he was amazing at everything, but he couldn’t help but worry when a small voice emerged from the recesses of his mind, saying that Akabane was just as amazing. Curse that persisting sense of paranoia because it was somehow able to convince him that Akabane was actually good at something.

His bias against Akabane was probably as strong as the teachers’ bias towards him.

Not that he would ever admit it.

For now he would just settle for the inadequacies he cursed in his head being fact rather than opinion.

“ Asano-kun.” suddenly, Gakushuu snapped out of his reverie, for a moment, he even worried that he might have been caught not paying attention to the lesson. However, the moment he met the smiling gaze of his proud teacher, he knew that wasn’t the case.

“ Please come up to solve the problem on the board.” As another figure made their way back to their seat, Gakushuu instantly understood the situation.

Previous to being called up, another poor soul had been up at the board and had solved the equation wrongly. Written in chicken scratch up on the black board was the supposed to equation, but to his trained eyes, he saw a glaring mistake jutting out in the middle.

As the other boy sat down, Gakushuu slid his seat back soundlessly, and stalked up to the board with all the grace of a black panther. (What happens to your writing with too much Marvel.) Snickers filled the classroom, though, he didn’t feel any shame because he knew that none of the laughs or whispers were directed at him. He might actually feel bad for the boy, only if this wasn’t a regular occurrence.

White dust fell from the stick of the chalk as it made harsh contact with the blackboard, highlighting the mistake with a large circle. For a few seconds, the laughs and whispers had died down and the only thing to be heard was the soft tapping of chalk on the board.

He finished the right answer to the equation with a flourish, tapping the chalk on the board at the end of the long string of numbers.

“ Well, class.” The teacher said as Gakushuu had begun to make his way back to his seat.

“ Nakamura-kun.” He directed pointedly at the student before with condescending lilt to his annoying voice. He slid past the student, giving him a brief glance out of the corner of his eyes. Nakamura had his head down and though concealed by the messy mop of stereotypical black hair that adorned his head, his embarrassed flush burned brightly through his expression when his name was mentioned.

“ If you don’t want to end up in E-class.” He emphasized for effect, “ Be like Asano-kun.” The ‘don’t be an idiot,’ was left unsaid but understood as it hung in the air like deodorant after physical education classes. Unpleasant but useful.

As the class once again burst into laughter, a female student playfully raised their voice.

“ But Sensei, we can’t all be as talented as Asano-san.”

As everyone began to howl with laughter, the irritating peals that scratched against his ears with renewed vigor reached crescendo as he fought to contain his annoyance at their wording.

He wasn’t some kind of natural genius.

He worked hard too.

It wasn’t easy.

Why did they think it was for him?

Maybe if they put in as much effort as he did they wouldn’t still feel this way.

Soundlessly slipping back into his seat, he forced himself to hang a fake smile among his features, to make it seem like he was enjoying himself.

He wasn’t.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent this chapter rewatching Assassination Classroom and it hurt to see Shuu get hit ;-; I WISH I COULD GET FULL MARKS THOUGH.

His bored mercury eyes stared out the window to his left like how a stereotypical anime character would. (Or cartoon cos Keith…) It was times like this where he wished that a black death-bringing notebook would fall right out of the sky and onto the random patch of grass he was staring at.

 

Karma wondered, maybe if he wrote Koro-sensei’s name in one, he would die. But is that even Koro-sensei’s real name, does he have one? Hmmm, the things that run through his head when he was bored. 

 

“Karma.” He gave an unnoticeable jolt at the sound of his name, immediately covering up his surprise with a calm hum in response as he lazily turned his head towards whoever it was that called his name.

 

It was Nagisa. He should have figured nobody else could sneak up on him the same way.

 

Sharp eyes locking onto the small figure in front of him, his head continued to rest on the inside of his palm.

 

“ I forgot to ask you yesterday,” He started with a small, sheepish grin, scratching the back of his neck with a tilt of the head. “ But, how much did you get for the examinations?” 

 

With his usual mischievous smile plastered on, he spoke. 

 

“Oh,” The smile didn’t disappear as he took a moment to gaze into the space next to Nagisa in deep contemplation.

 

Karma nearly flinched when the memory of running into Gakushuu once again came to mind. With a wider synthetic grin, bright mercury eyes, shifted back to lock onto cyan, playfulness flickering deep in his eyes.

 

“ Why don’t you take a guess?”

 

Maybe he was too obvious with the glee he was to have felt, or maybe he was just overcompensating his acting, saturing it with vats of happiness in a feeble attempt to drown out the guilt that came crashing in the pit of his stomach like waves during a storm, but, for some reason, Nagisa picked it up on the first try.

 

“Uhhmmmmm . . .” Nagisa looked up at the ceiling, crossing his arms with a hand left out to grip his chin as he hummed, as if the question were actually an important one.

 

“ Judging from how happy you seem . . .” Nagisa studied Karma’s happy expression for a moment, before finally reaching an answer. 

 

“ Full . . . marks?”  He guessed.

 

“ Yep!” Popping the ‘p’ at the end of the word, Karma responded gleefully with a smile on his face that seemed to tell the world that everything was right, that he was eating sunshine for breakfast, glitter for lunch and rainbows for dinner when in actual fact, the topic only served to  make him feel slightly worse about himself than he did before. 

 

A part of him worried for himself. Because, if he knew anything at all about Asano Jr, which he did, it would be that he has a gigantic ego. He was probably a megalomaniac, and from the looks of it, he was the type to go very far in defending his ego.

 

Angering someone like that did not guarantee his safety, but instead, the abolishment of it. 

 

Dragging his head out of the non-existent clouds, he continued to converse with Nagisa, who has yet to notice anything out of place.

 

“ You?”  

 

Just as Nagisa had opened his mouth to respond, Koro-sensei sped into the room once again, a blur of yellow flashed from the open door to the teacher’s desk.

 

The constant chatter in the classroom dropped to quiet as the stack of papers Koro-sensei set onto the table landed with a soft ‘thump’. Everyone in the classroom lifted their heads, turning to face the front, those who were once chatting to their friends rushed back into their seats, this, of course, includes Nagisa.

 

Karma squited at the stack of white in the desk, only to find that the top sheet was adorned with tiny red ink marks of circles and crosses.

 

His eyes shifted back to Koro-sensei’s eternally smiling figure as he realised that they were exam papers.

 

“ Well class,” With a whip of his vine-like tentacles, he picked up the stack and pulled it closer to himself. Though his expression remained still throughout, mouth never moving, complexion never changing, he seemed to give a sadistic grin at his next words, though, it might have simply been a trick of the light. “ Time to receive your exam papers!”

 

He threaded himself between the rows of anxious students, shoving stacks of papers into their waiting hands.

 

“ But the most important thing,” he continued just as the flashes of yellow all round disappears, leaving to form the single figure standing at the front of the classroom, “ Is whether or not you’ve made it into the overall top 50.”

 

Karma looked down at his own stack of papers with a sense of accomplishment as his eyes landed on the large ‘500’ at the top of his report card. HIs smirk dropped in a moment out of surprise. He knew what he was going get but seeing it upfront, feeling the fibres of paper between his fingertips, the weight of the papers within his grasp made it much more real. 

 

He gave a small huff of victory as he leaned back into his seat, bringing the corners of his lips back up in satisfaction. 

 

He did it, he actually did it.

 

Sharp intakes of breath and whispers could be heard all around the classroom, but he simply filtered all of that out as white noise. Nobody was as surprised as he was, not that any of them would ever know.

 

Koro-sensei only stopped talking for a few short moments, but those moments seemed to take an eternity to pass by, as if time was stuck in a freezer, slowing, frost creeping along its non-existent edges then enchanting it to stop.

 

“The overall ranking should be posted at the main building by now,” there was barely a pause in between his first sentence and the next, but he seemed to have sped over to the main building to get the rankings. The  sheer speed that he went to retrieve the poster at let his excitement shine through, if Karma wasn’t so sure magic didn’t exist, he would think that the octopus-like being was a wizard that teleported the object into his shiny yellow tentacle.

 

“ So, let’s announce it here in class E as well!” HIs eyes fixed onto the slightly torn edges of the poster just as it  was put up on the back board, the edges seemed to reach out, ragged and torn, like something that didn’t want to be here. Koro-sensei must have ripped it off its place on the announcement board in the main building.

 

He let his mind wander, and the image that built up from letting it happen made him snicker. For those who didn’t bother staying back the day before to wait for the results, when those in the main building go to the announcement board after classes to look at their rankings, what would be their reactions if they were to find it gone?

 

The best part about that mental image was that most of them would be anxious, excited, hearts pounding harshly with blood that was equal parts fear and anticipation, though those who didn’t wait yesterday wouldn’t be as excited as the rest but there was a certain feeling of danger whenever anyone looked at their results in this school, mainly because the construction workers who built this school must have been ordered personally by Asano Gakuho to use elitism and megalomania in the concrete mix used for foundations. There was no one in the school who didn’t give even the slightest thought to their marks, bad marks would damage their pride and social standing.

 

Well, someone sure is excited. This is the second time it’s shown.

 

Though, what would it be like if Prez were to see it though? 

 

He could see it already.

 

_ Asano would just be carrying out his daily duties, patrolling the conditions of clubrooms and meeting rooms in the school. _

 

_ He walks past a sad, old, naked announcement board without a second thought.  _

 

_ Then as if he was struck by lightning, a realization hit him, so hard it almost felt like a chalkboard duster falling onto his head. Though what he saw must have been on some level a childish prank just like that, because the clothing to the announcement board’s sad, old, naked body, seemed to have disappeared. The results he woke up early just so he could come to school and use the printer before everyone else began to; it disappeared into thin air. _

 

_ He would turn his head first, out of confusion. _

 

_ Next, he would turn his body, taking a few steps closer, squinting those pretty purple eyes of his, out of doubt. _

 

_ Then his mouth would drop open like that of a fish out of water, gasping for air, instead, in this situation, he would be gasping for comprehension out of sheer disbelief that anyone would have the gall to simply take something that did not belong to them- _

 

_ Finally, his strawberry blonde eyebrows would furrow in discontent, eyes sharpening in annoyance, seeming to glow a shade brighter, basking in the glow of the dark aura Asano Jr. seemed to always carry around; lips taking on an annoyed pout, nose scrunching cutely in slight irritation as he brings to fingers up to pinch the bridge of his agitated nose, folding that one available arm under the other just to scream to the world: ‘ I am fine thank you very much, no, I do not have any attention left to grace you with as it is all fueling my anger directed towards the anonymous figure that takes the initiative to annoy the  _ **_hell_ ** _ out of me.’ _

 

The urge to laugh bubbled up in the back of his throat, his vocal chords to aching with the need to release their tensions, but he suppressed it. Koro-sensei was being dramatically dramatic in his dramatics with that cheerful expectant speech of him that seemed to be laced with the exact same poison of condescending sadism that they hated the Class-A for, and everyone else was doing really well in going impromptu, he must have been the only one that missed whatever cue Koro-sensei must have given to the class because, as he already thought, everyone was matching each of Koro-sensei’s dramatic words with a dramatic expression.

 

With all the drama in the air, the sweet aroma of overreaction filling his senses, he couldn’t possibly find it in him to shatter the moment with his  _ extremely well-timed laughter. _ That wouldn't be a mistake. 

 

After all, this was another thing for him to laugh at, keep quiet and have more fun thing happening? Or give in to the urge to laugh and have nothing fun happen? It would be obvious which one he would choose.

 

He didn’t say a word. 

 

If his grin grew bigger in that moment, no one noticed.

 

Then, something came to mind. 

 

Amethyst eyes that glowed brightly with the prospect of competition, sharp like an assassin’s blade, turned dull, it seemed just as small pathetic and meaningless as the brightness of his phone when he used it in the dark and it was set to auto brightness. Perfectly cut nails that were still somehow long enough to, cut into the skin of his palm, restlessly scratching and poking, abusing the thin layer of skin that seemed to remain. 

 

His face angled downward and bangs covering the eyes that were avoiding his, looking far away in an attempt to conceal the burning cover of foreign substance that protected the lifelessness of those dulled blades from view, only to catch a small spark of sunlight and rebelliously throw it off with a few glints every time he shifted.

 

The corners of his lips fell once again, like they were on a roller coaster ride, the switch kept feeling. Instead of the excitement he felt when on a typical roller coaster, the strange emotion that overtook him seemed to ooze through his heart, digging into the bone as the emotional coaster known as Akabane Karma’s heart plummeted down into a healthily acidic pool of guilt. 

 

Either it was a deadly acidic pool or guilt or it was the tears of all the delinquents he bullied before.

 

It’s definitely the acidic pool of guilt, because  _ ppfffftttttt _ , that was so much more possible than feeling anything but happiness towards the memory of those assholes’ torture.

 

What broke his out of his reverie was the pained scream his classmates’ wooden chairs let out as their limbs scraped painfully on the floor, a flutter of paper met his ears, as he looked up at the blackboard, away from the sudden movements and uneasy expressions in his peripheral vision, focusing on the stolen overall rankings. 

 

Gasps could be heard throughout the classroom, the same note played in many different tunes, joined up to create an orchestra, it wasn’t enchanting, just really funny. It tickled his ear, he didn’t know there were that many different ways to gasp before.

 

Karma stared blankly into the rankings, more specifically, at the two names that stood high above the others. 

 

Ah, so yesterday wasn’t a dream. 

 

He beat Asano, so why didn’t he feel any accomplishment?

 

Just so he wouldn’t be singled out or left behind, he got up just like the rest and walked up to the front in faux curiosity as everyone just took a few moments to stare.

 

Yep, just stare. Nothing else, just some pure wholesome staring. 

 

Are they even breathing? It was so silent, particles of dust could be heard clashing with each other.

 

“ I-” Terasaka started, slicing through the moment like a red hot knife through butter. Everyone was still processing the results, eyes glued to the front, lagging behind his words.

 

“ I came in- 46th . . .?” There was a hint of hesitancy at the end as his tone tuned up when he found himself unable to believe the board.

 

“That means . . .” at that point, no one knew what was happening or who said what, but there were cheers throughout the classroom as everyone took up different victory poses. Nagisa’s making him look a lot like a girl. (Studying the anime and this is what I see XD)

 

“ We kicked out the Virtuosos and practically dominated the top!” someone shouted the statement ecstatically into Karma’s right ear. 

 

He just might be deaf now.

 

“ And Karma even came in first!” 

 

Huh. Okay, he already knows, no need to tell the whole world . . .

 

“ So Karma-kun, how does it feel to keep your word and get first place in a high-level field?” Koro-sensei suddenly spoke up from his side, when did he get there?

 

“ Mmmmmm, nothing special really.” He could feel his face heat up slightly under all the gazes that were fixed onto him.

 

“ The place where you really managed to best Asano-kun was the final problem.” He explained, probably just to give the class some context.

 

“ Although, I feel like if I haven’t spent the year with you guys I don’t think I could have solved it.” he replied, not sure what to feel when a moment like this just flung him into the deep end of his own bad conscience, elaborating on it only reminded him of it, shoving it down his throat, filling his lungs just to make him choke on it.

 

It was just a fluke. 

 

It wasn’t even a concrete line of thought, at a certain point, he kind of gave up and started thinking about random things, eventually getting him to imagine the atoms as people, and somehow, getting sentimental and loosely associating the numbers with ideas.

 

“ That’s just the kind of problem it was.” The words burned his throat as they came up. Nonchalant, uncaring, fronting.

 

_ It was just a fluke. _

 

And he didn’t know how to feel when it was a fluke that got someone hurt.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing got really out of hand towards the end, and it's 0200 now so I'mma go sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gakushuu gets hit, then jumps out of a window.

With the dread filled atmosphere that hung around, clouding the campus, it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that someone had died. However, that failed to be the case. What happened was even worse.

 

They were beaten by Class E.

 

School was over. The bell rang loudly like that annoying alarm you woke up to everyday, feeling like sandpaper as it grated on your ears, on your nerves, but more than anything, it served as a wake up call. They had been living a lie, walking around with a false sense of superiority and elitism. Finally being beaten mercilessly into the cold hard ground was what managed to make them realise that Class A wasn’t that much better than Class E.

 

For those who have been living the dream their entire lives, having that reality shattered was something they were not capable of, or even not willing to face.

 

Gakushuu distanced himself from the scene, sitting alone at his desk, listening to the quiet chatters of disbelief as the surfaced behind him as he took deep breaths to calm himself. He stared at the light brown, grainy wood, his head angled down as he tried to block out the rest of the whispers. He wanted to dig a hole in the ground and shove his own head deep into the warm earth, maybe getting burned by the earth’s hot core would be punishment enough for his sins.

 

He settled for shoving his head as close to the desk as he possibly could to try to push as much of the depression out of his sight as he possibly could. He felt a twist of guilt because he knew that even if he didn’t really care for these people as friends, they were people that had placed their trust in him and he had let them down, falling to the ground with all the danger, self-destruction and shine of a giant collapsing star.

 

He felt rotten.

 

He was actually glad he managed to check the scores by himself yesterday. A small part of him was happy his father had punished him, the dark, twisted gunk in his soul that mixed in with the rest. It saved him from completely breaking down from self-hate, knowing that part of the world had owed him something for his mistreatment instead of the other way around.

 

“ How did we lose when we studied that hard?” Seo said, forcing out a shameful mix of a complaint and a frustrated groan through the fingers he seemed determined on using to forcefully stop his own breathing with. Well everyone else, even if they weren’t attempting to kill themselves, they were certainly living off the exact same sentiment that made Seo act that way with at least the half of them thinking about it.

 

When Seo’s words had reached Gakushuu’s ears, though, all his meditation attempts immediately begun to fail miserably, glowing hot frustration stung in his chest as it bubbled over, rearing its  ugly head in his mind as anger. He sounded disappointed at himself. Everyone seemed to the disappointed in themselves.

 

Why was no one mad at him? He was the one holding the pride of Class-A above his head, he was the one who gave in, who gave out, who overestimated his own abilities and bit off more than he could chew. If he wrote just a little faster, he could have gotten those points.

 

Those three goddamn points. He wished he could take a look at Akabane’s paper because he would bet that Akabane didn’t put in even half as much work as he did.

 

It was his fault.

 

“ You didn’t study hard enough.” He bit out harshly. Even Gakushuu himself found it illogical to be mad at them for not being mad at him. He tried to soften his tone a little as the spoke again. “ That’s all there is to it.” He glared at the desk he sat as if the wooden artifice’s mere existence had offended him somehow.

 

“ And I too let you down with my results.” The memory of his shameful failure came back to him in High Definition, giving him his own private show of the scene at the front of his mind, as if it was on a large stage, in a play meant just for him. It was only a slight comfort to him that that the words he choked out managed to sound so smooth.

 

It was only then that he noticed the sting in his slowly bruising skin on his forearm, tearing open like the cracks on top of a cake when the temperature rose, his nails breaking down at the skin in agitation. Gakushuu paused in his self-abuse. As a wave of vengeance washed over him.

 

“ I will definitely use this frustration as a tool for my future.” He continued, saying so softly, more to himself than to anyone else as his eyes turned from those of a dead fish to the burning glare of determination he was usually equipped with.

 

This loss, “ I will win in High School.” It hurt, cutting deep, past those flimsy layers of flesh and melting into his bones, uncontrolled flames of shame lapped at his core, drowned his very being.

 

He stood up suddenly, seeming to shoot up in comparison to the depths he had fallen to just moments ago.

 

“ I will find ways for all of you to win alongside me.” What kind of a weak pathetic excuse of a human being would he be if he couldn’t at least drag the person that pushed him into the depths he had been submerged in?

 

“ So please.” He pleaded, but his words sounded like more of a command than anything else, his voice reverberated about the room, lingering and bright to everyone’s ears, like church bells that chimed angelically, it wrapped around everyone’s hearts and without realising, they were ready  to give their entire being to help this kind soul.

 

“ Support me.” wrapped up in the twisted idea of hope that had come from the thought of revenge, everyone was immediately taken by Gakushuu’s words. Their eyes lit up with hope like the sky lit up with fireworks during national day, glimmering their aspirations as they found themselves drawn to the prospect of eternally pledging their existence to the man in front of them.

 

The air was still, but stuffed full with their new-found respect. Nobody dared to move, dared to even let their hearts beat out of the worry that their existence may disrupt this moment.

 

Everyone had their attention on Gakushuu, with Gakkushuu’s own attention on the class, his focus dug deeply into the topic on how to turn his failure around, to use it to gain traction towards his ultimate goal.

 

Which was exactly why nobody realised that there was another figure, eager to join in the lovely conversation, with their own ‘encouraging’ word to ‘cheer’ them on and push them through these hardships.

 

“ Can you . . .” The low silky tone of his father’s voice swept past his ears delicately, gently with their alluring phantom touch. Instead of the warmth a son should feel from the ‘encouragement’ of his father, the cold fell through the voice that graced his ears, deadly, poisonous, as the cold seeped into his bones.

 

“ Say the same after putting your life on the line?” He could feel the threatening embrace of his aura. Without turning around, he knew who it is. He felt like there were a million centipedes scuttling about, their tiny arms leaving light touches that itched so much they burned, they scarred him so much, it took away all fear he could possibly have had.

 

The rest of the class reacted similarly, still absorbing the shock with the same bated breaths, this time though, for a much different reason.

 

The principal’s appearance stuck fear in each of their vulnerable, impressionable hearts, as if burning a brand into the precious ornament with a hot iron. But they were helpless. Because no matter how much it hurt to have the miserable defeat rubbed in their face, the helplessness curled around them, making itself at home at the back of their minds.

 

After a few moments, Gakushuu finally calmed enough to attempt a swallow to rid of the thick, uncomfortable, ball of phlegm that infested his throat, hoping it would help his breathe easier. Yet, he still couldn’t find it in himself to turn around and face his father.

 

“ Life is full of surprises.” The tone of voice played with him, made a mockery of his existence, casually contrasting the severity of the situation as it shone through his eyes.

His fingers gave a desperate twitch.

 

“ You won’t know if losing will cost you your life until the battle is over.”

 

_Worthless._

 

_Weak._

 

_Incompetent._

 

_Hopeless._

 

These were words that described him perfectly, the words that his father’s gaze drilled into him every time their eyes met. No matter how true this was, no matter how much it synchronised with his deepest insecurities, any show of it would result in punishment.

 

Refusing to meet his father’s gaze were only one of the plethora of actions that would spell out those insults.

 

Gakushuu dragged his perfectly maintained nails over the pale innocent skin if his palm, focussing on the pain that his self-inflicted abuse caused in an attempt to calm himself. He turned to face his father out of fear of the repercussions if he didn’t. So he turned to look at the demon.

 

The similarities he found to the very pair of amethyst he saw in the mirror everyday made him want to claw out his eyeballs.

 

His father had a creepy air to him, the gaze of a dead fish with a strong enough stench of disappointment to anchor them in place. He was eerily still, like a stone statue. He seemed mad, but not on the surface, it was impossible to see past the foggy glow of blankness in his eyes, it made him unreadable, unpredictable, while the only thing that gave way to his intentions were the smooth ribbons of propaganda flowing habitually out of his mouth.

 

“ That is why, it is my job to make sure you don’t lose.” The words were like a poisoned cake dressed up in pretty pastel shades of frosting, overcompensating for the ugly that was underneath. As much as he hoped to be as ignorant as the rest of the class, over the years, he’s learned to tell what his father was thinking. Normally, you can never go wrong with information, but this time, knowing that his father was in outrage brought a sense of fear that he felt he would rather go without.

 

“ I will ensure your improvement by the time you graduate.” The words were a cold assurance, cutting straight into the core of the topic, sounding more like he was going to dish out punishments than anything else.

 

Though, what bothered him was probably the fact that he had said something similar. As much as he hated his father, he knew that because he was, the principal’s manipulative ways were bound to rub off on him. He wasn’t all that different form the person he hated the most.

 

“ Principal Asano . . .” Araki spoke up in a gentle voice, his tone wavering as he seemed to be gathering the courage to speak to the principal.

 

The principal shifted his deadly gaze onto the green-haired boy. It was obvious that the boy was trying his best not to flinch. It was more obvious to both Gakushuu and his father that he did though.

 

Araki shifted his gaze to the floor on his right, shoulders hunched over in fear, but his voice still rang loud and clear. “ We understand now.” He spoke.

 

Ren must have taken pity on the shaking form of is friend as he was the next to speak.

 

“ With our current methods, we have no way to beat Class E.” Even as the brunette had gathered the courage to speak, he, like Araki, didn’t dare meet the Principal’s eyes.

 

With each word, his glare glowed brighter, burned a little stronger, cut a little deeper.

 

“ Both Class E and Asano managed to grow stronger through their defeat.” These words struck Gakushuu hard. He didn’t. He lost. He wasn’t worthy of being their leader, much less of their praise. He turned to gape at Ren openly in pure shock.

 

“ Our strength is no match for the flexible strength they have.” Ren took a bow and the three other Virtuosos had took the cue, following suit.

 

“ We apologize for falling short of our goal.” The rest of the class were still frozen, many were lost in the conversation, the situation, unsure of what to think, to do.

 

“ If you wish you may send us down to Class E.” It sounded noble, to personally accept a punishment before being given one. However, this was not the case in the eyes of the Principal.

 

Gakushuu gave a nervous glance towards the principal, cautiously gripping the side of his cardigan as he watched the man beside him closely for any visible reaction.

 

Most of the class had begun to comprehending the situation, bending down low, gaze tilted to the floor to show their sincerity.

 

“ We feel that we will learn more there.” That must have hurt. His father had just had his entire system destroyed in front of him. Though he wished that he had been the one to destroy it, he was satisfied with this for now.

 

Giving one last glance to the class, he turned back to face his stunned father, everyone had their heads bowed, it seems they all felt that way. “ You have your answer, Sir.” Gakushuu steeled his gaze and turned back to face his father once more, unintentionally letting some of his snark seep through as he gloated.

 

_Shit-_

 

He could barely follow the movements, the Principal’s arm cracked out like a deadly whip, so quick it wasn’t visible to the naked eye, his eyes still blank, staring ahead.

 

And suddenly, Gakushuu’s world spun, pain exploded on his right cheek, throbbing and burning as his back collided with something- hard, he didn’t really know, bringing him to a rough stop. It took him a few moments to understand what just happened. His father had just hit him. With the pain concentrated  on his lower back, right behind his left hip bone, and the disarranged tables that lay in discord around him in protest, he knew his back must have struck a corner before his body came to a stop, slamming into the wall.

 

He was still dizzy, his neck and the back of his head felt like they were twisting and contorting painfully as he felt a sudden wave of nausea creep up on him.

 

At the same time, a sense of victory washed upon him, he ignored the concerned shout of his classmates as he forced himself up on one arms, closing his eyes and blocking the light out for a moment to calm his concussion.

 

This is stupid.

 

He was stupid.

 

He was going to regret this later but this was just too good of a chance to pass up.

 

His father stood there, staring at the disobedient arm that dared backhand his son- a student under broad daylight, as if it had betrayed him somehow, and it had.

 

“ You look like you’re glitching out.” he breathed through the pain, a smirk riding up the corners of his mouth as he continued to taunt him. “ I might just be seeing the fatherly side of you at last.”

 

Gakushuu’s smirk grew even wider when his father didn’t respond. He knew he might have to go through hell for his words later, bu this was a moment that he would hold dear to him, close to his heart. The day when something broke his father.

 

He reluctantly accepted Ren's offer to help him out of the classroom as the arm that pulled him up to stand left him reeling at the sudden change in level. With the rest of the Virtuosos trailing behind like a pack of lost puppies, they stumbled out of the classroom like the groups of BAMF!s they were.

 

He was trying his best not to smile at the frozen figure of his father.

 

“ I’m fine.” Gakushuu said, trying to get out of Ren’s grip to walk by himself as they reached the corridor.

 

After a few loud protests from the rest of the Virtuosos, and a friendly threat from Ren himself to let him help to get him to the infirmary or _he swears-_ Gakushuu remained silent the rest of the way to the infirmary.

 

* * *

 

 

Gakushuu shifted on the hard, white mattress of the infirmary, stuck, by the orders of the rest of the Virtuosos, out of concern for his health. He didn’t know if there was anything else he could say to convince them that he was fine without going into the dark and gruesome details of how this was nothing compared to what he had gone through before.

 

So he kept quiet.

 

He stared blankly up at the ceiling hanging above the head, the light stabbing into his corneas made it spin, while his head burned.

 

Or should that be the other way around?

 

The curtains were drawn shut, giving him his own small corner of privacy to rest and heal in. The nurse had told him to rest here for the remaining half of the day. She would let him go off for recess, but he was to return to the infirmary immediately after. Of course agreed in order to keep up his good-boy image, but he had wished that the infirmary wasn’t so close to the main corridor. All he could think about when he heard the chatters soak through the door was how most of his class saw his father hit him. It was probably the topic of the day at this point.

 

But he didn’t need their pity.

 

For once in his life he sincerely felt proud, happy, like he stood on top of the world and he would only have to think to conquer it. He wasn’t going to let their whispers destroy his mood.

 

When the tell-tale sign of the nurse’s absence, rang through his mind like a rush of cheerful trumpets, sounding much like the metal click of a door as it closed, the fading sound of footfall gave him a taste of freedom.

 

He shifted the white curtain behind him closed and turned to the window, taking a moment to admire the beautiful scenery. For a prison, this school was beautiful, a large field of well-maintained grass stood square next to the large forest that led to Class E.

 

The only thing Gakushuu envied of Class E was how they walked through the forest to get to class everyday. It would be a waste of time for him if he were to do the same, such a large detour would leave him to drown in a puddle of his own guilt for giving himself that much slack.

 

At this point he couldn't find it in himself to care anymore.

 

Snapping open the latch of the window, a gentle breeze brushed across his cheeks, lovingly combing through his hair.

 

With a grin uncontrollably taking over his face, heart pounding wildly against his chest-

 

He jumped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Gakushuu isn't dead. I think ;D  
> (If you can, please leave a review, they help feed my children, *my large yet still-growing ego*.)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apology??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School had started up and I'm tired ;-; but at the same time, I just really felt like writing!!

Gakushuu’s feet gave a light tap on the ground as he landed softly on the grass, though there wasn’t anyone around, to anyone that may have seen him, he looked like a panther as he nimbly landed on his toes, cushioning the impact with a soft sway of his knees; even with the full weight of a teenage human on the surface area of just his toes, the grass below were still glittering brightly with dew that lingered from the morning’s cold, unharmed by the force.

He swiftly shoved both hands into the pockets of his grey pants, feeling the weight of his wrists pulling the fabric on his hips a little lower, as he turned back his head to throw a glance at the literal open window of opportunity he escaped through.

As the wind brushed across his cheeks, the light coloured curtains that carefully framed the sides of the opening rushed out, fluttering in the cool breeze.

Oops. He left the window open. 

The newly found rebellious feeling in him was secretly nurtured, growing stronger as he turned his back to the memory of his prison and stalked off towards the beautiful forest the lay ahead.

With his feet padding through the happy grass, eyes wide with wonder at the prospect of experiencing what he never had, he treaded forward, uninhibitedly stalking forward like a kitten out in the world on his own for the very first time.

The soft crunch of the grass melded beautifully with cicadas and birds as they sang a lovely chorus, his senses stimulated by the fresh earthy smell that saturated the air he soaked in, he grinned in excitement.

 

Karma couldn’t shake off the sense of guilt that barged into his home and gobbled it up. He felt trapped in a world of his own making. Maybe if he didn’t egg the other boy on, pulling up what was most likely his deepest insecurities as a tactic of rushed intimidation, he wouldn’t have a chest that contained a large hunk of concrete, every compliment, every proud smile directed in his direction only served to make it grow heavier, and he was tired of it. 

He needed to find a way to apologize.

So when break came around, he took the chance to leave the Class E grounds. He slid through the gathered crowds, passed through pale and invisible, almost something intangible as he went straight through the door. 

When his feet finally moved with enough strength for enough time, the building he studied in was no longer anywhere to be seen, far from sight and even further from mind, his eyes glided over his surroundings, taking it in as he went along, once again moving through the forest he so loved. His posture relaxed, shoulders slouched, back a little hunched with a lazy smile on his face. He was glad to be out and away from an environment that reminded him of his main concern these past few days.

He lost himself to the cool air that contacted his skin, eyes open, but not looking, only seeing enough to maneuver through the grass, his agile feet instinctly moving through the path he was so familiar with, making sure to avoid any and all roots, he didn;t want to trip.

Karma wansn’t sure how much time passed this way, just him and the trees as he made his way through, clearing his thoughts as the nature calmed him, the serene atmosphere calling his name, pulling him deeper into its kingdom of glamour, glittering as he went.

His feet brought him to his usual break stop in front of the vending machine, where he took a moment to fumble around in his pockets, feeling around as he heard the jingle of coins ring through the sounds of the forest, proceeding to lazily shoe them into the coin slot then slapping the button on strawberry milk. 

Yes.

He bent down, reaching into the slot at the bottom of the metal contraption as he heard the loud landing of cardboard on metal as it echoed around in the machine. For all his prayers were worth, he honestly prayed, as he always did, that there wouldn’t be any damage to his milk.

He reached in, the pads of his fingers pressing gently onto the milk carton, as he lifted it up like a crane, swiftly pulling out to drink.

Though, just as he had been enjoying his break, he heard a rustle in the leaves behind him, he would have thought it was an animal, but it didn’t sound like any of the animals he had ever encountered in the woods before. The only ones he saw were too small to make any distinctive rustling noises as they moved through the green. It must be a person.

Who else would be in the forest at this time? For the past year or so, he knew everyone else to stay in the classrooms as they were too lazy to go for a walk.

He heard the figure emerge from the bushes behind him, and suddenly, all sounds came to a halt. It didn’t matter, Karma had already reached the end of his deduction.

“ Koro-sensei, I know that its-” He had started to say, almost about to explain the irreplicable way that he figured out it was the yellow octopus, until he turned and had his eyes captured by the person it turned out to be.

His heart leapt to his throat as he mentally forced it back down, stuffing it back into his chest, when he saw strawberry blonde and violet.

“ … You?” The air seemed to have been forced out of his lungs by the sudden swell of shock that shoved its way into his chest.

The other looked just as shocked, just like he was before, but more calm, much more calm, he wasn’t as tense and the lines that were usually framing his eyes, the remnants of a glare, had been smoothed out, his shoulders no longer squared, but relaxed, they looked much less like they were about to find a way to punch him. All in all, he looked quite soft.

Gakushuu didn’t want to see Karma here, he didn’t mean to, he just wanted to take a little walk through the woods. But of course, how could he have been so stupid as to forget that the woods were what separated Class E from the rest of the classes. The air around the other seemed quite tense, Gakushuu did nothing but stare in shock for a few moments when he first saw the red-head, expecting for something large to happen, whenever they met it always seemed like a nuclear bomb would go off somewhere on the other side of the world anyways, so why not this time. 

Though this, staying here with this insensitive asshole, would do nothing to calm him, do nothing to maintain his peaceful, happy mode, but would instead do everything to make Gakushuu feel like punching the other.

There were a few moments spent in contemplative silence, where they both stared at the other with thoughts of what to do running through their minds. Karma was facing his guilt, trying to think up a way to get Gakushuu to stay long enough for him to apologize while Gakushuu just wanted to leave.

So that’s what he did. He took a tentative step back as he recovered from the shock of running into his rival here, retracting the ‘deer caught in headlights’ look as Karma made a step forward in desperation, not wanting for Gakushuu to run, but that must have been the final straw, the one that sent him tumbling off the edge of the cliff, because that one step sent Gakushuu tumbling away from Karma instead.

There was a large rustle as the bushes Gakushuu had originally come through were forced open, leaving a momentary gap for him to jump through. The student body president was like a panther as he ran through that small space with quick steps, like a thief with the cops at his tail.

Karma could almost see the opportunity flow right past his open palms like water that sieved through his fingers, but he didn’t want to give up just yet. He spent the past 24 hours feeling horrible about not only his score, but also how he had teased the other about his.

So he did what any other, normal, upstanding student would do in his place.

Karma ran over, grabbed his wrist, and lugged the back-end of Gakushuu’s elbow over his right shoulder and pulled.

There was a loud exhale of the breath from Gakushuu’s lungs as he landed hard on the dirty floor of the forest floor. His head spun from the aggravation of his injuries and the thought of maybe having some dead bugs and decomposing plants sandwiched between him and the floor.

He turned to glare heatedly at the offender as Karma just stood there, trying to process his own actions, and slowly coming to the realisation that he may have just made the situation worse. He froze over, like hell on one of its bad days, sending himself spiraling down into a mental purgatory of his own making, berating himself for that careless, instinctual action.

He should have thought this through.

“ What the hell, Akabane!” The other’s voice shouted loudly, angrily. If they were anywhere else, it would be loud, clear cutting, but here, in the forest, it was muffled by the brushing of wind through the leaves, some croaking, a few birds chirping here and there, with the cacophony of crickets and grasshoppers playing messily in the background. Everything was a little more blurry, a little softer. Even the tone wasn’t as deadly as he would have expected it to be.

But it still came with enough force to stab him back into the plane of reality as he mentally fumbled.

Gakushuu slowly pushed himself off the ground, left elbow first, then his right, leaning back on the ground for a few moments, then pressed his left palm into the cool earth, grounding himself enough to sit up, bringing his right hand up to rest on his forehead for the imaginary support it would provide his aching head.

Lines creased his face where his eyebrows furrowed above his eyes, shut in an attempt to block out the pain. As Gakushuu tried getting up, Karma finally found his words.

“ I didn’t-” He started, cursing himself when he lost that train of thought. What was wrong with him? “ I- I didn’t mean to-”

“ Throw me or insult me?” Gakushuu looked up, purple eyes glinting in the tiny sparkles flying around, through his strawberry blond fringe as his eyebrows remained furrowed, eyes themselves narrowed, seeming to convey a greater, deeper meaning, though in actual fact he just looked like an angry kitten woken up from his nap.

He was scared for his life, but felt so conflicted, because it made him feel crazy to find it cute when it felt like the daggers flying out of those amethyst eyes could actually kill him.

“ Both.” The word slipped out of Karma’s mouth with a sigh as he stared back, biting his lip, sending a jolt of pain through the nerves to hit his brain. He noticed it but not really, he was still trying to deal with the current situation.

That being Gakushuu looking shock, an incredulous look painting his features as his glare morphed into something else. It was funny, he seemed a little like a goldfish this time. Though not the ones with lips larger than a hooker’s and a forehead bigger than the moon, a cute one with beautiful scales that spilt a little bit of its colours everywhere it went, breathtaking, leaving Karma also a little breathless.

Maybe that the the feeling of that heaving anchor resting in his chest somewhere finally shattering into pieces, its soul leaving him for eternity. He didn’t really know what it should be other than that.

But Gakushuu remained quiet, a confused look on his face, the intentional silence seemed like an answer, one close to forgiveness, one that prompted Karma to continue explaining. So he did.

“ I didn’t mean to insult you yesterday. I didn’t think you would take it that seriously.” 

“ You don’t think in general.” Gakushuu scoffed, turning his head to he side in faux anger, trying to mask his curiosity for the rest of Karma’s ‘apology’.

“ Ouch.” Karma responded with a slight wince, the statement leaving his mind almost as quickly as it came, feeling more like a light pinch, maybe it wasn’t even a feeling and an ant that just managed to sneak up on him and get a mouthful of Karma, taking advantage of the situation that preoccupied him. It was nothing compared to the gut stabbing, stomach twisting agony he felt a moment ago, so it didn’t really mean much.

“ But true, I wasn’t thinking, fair assessment.” Karma said, coming to a compromise between his pride and his guilt as he spoke.

“ I thought I was just stating a fact,” 

That particular line earned something that may or may not have been a low growl from the boy on the floor. Karma should speak faster.

“ But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that it was a little petty of me to mock you over three marks I got on a-” He choked on the next word. The arrogance that filled his being blocked his airways, trapping the word there.

“ A?” Gakushuu had a perfectly arched eyebrow raised in interest, wanting to know what would come next, especially when it looked like it pained the delinquent on a personal level to come out with it already.

“ A fluke.” Karma visibly sulked. Not obviously, but his whole demeanor sank. It was funny, and yet, a little depressing to watch it happen so quickly to someone he always saw as happy and carefree. Though Karma had just willingly made his conceit into a lamb, slaughtering it, carving through the meat to present it as a peace offering, he still felt he had a need to clean up the crime scene a little.

The rate he spoke at sped up, not giving Gakushuu a chance to respond. 

“ I didn’t actually get the question.” His hands started gesturing wildly. 

“ I was actually stuck for about five minutes when I just about gave up and was kind of falling asleep.” He was shifting his weight between his feet uncomfortably.

“ I then dropped my pen on the table and entered something similar to a hypnagogic state, making some weird links about friendships being some kind of metaphor for the area and the atoms being people. Then my mind just kinda went, ‘Oh! What are friendships? Endless! So the atomic structure must have been endless too!’ then I penned it down just a few seconds before the exa-” He was twiddling his fingers and staring at the sky, cheeks flushed from the blood that tried to run in embarrassment from the rest of his body. When he looked down though, he saw Gakushuu with his face smacked into his palm.

“ Of course!” Karma was jolted out of his apologetic state with something that would have been just as loud as the scream from a murder victim, but one that held much more insight and understanding than one. 

“ Uh-” Karma was confused. Again.

“ How could I have been so stupid! It was a3/2 this entire time!” The effects of Gakushuu’s singular facepalm became more and more dramatic as time went on. At a certain point, Karma could have actually believed that Gakushuu head was actually buried in his palms.

“ Asano-”

“ Don’t.” The dramatic movements ceased at the word, both of them stood still. There was a slight pause before he continued, Gakushuu’s hand crushing up some dried leaves as he gathered up the courage to speak.

“ I guess I-” Gakushuu was flustered too now, it was adorable. “ I probably overreacted . . .” He managed to mumble as his hand fiddled with the leaves crushed and crumbling at his fingertips.

“ So you don’t really need to apologize,” He managed to continue in an even tone after trailing off, “ We’re even now.” 

HIs tongue ran over his canines nervously, grounding himself in the slight prick he felt on the muscle. It was a bad habit that normally didn’t come out. Usually because he was able to watch himself without distraction when with others. He was a little too flustered and much too uncomfortable to care at this point.

For a moment, there was companionable silence that froze over the two, like frost over still water. 

For once, there wasn’t a tsunami surging or a hurricane brewing somewhere in the background. 

Karma was taken aback and took a moment to bask in the fact that he may have just made a new friend.

Snapping out of his reverie, the red head took a step forwards, feet bringing him close enough to the other to extend an arm.

“ Here.” 

Karma unconsciously shifted his gaze to the ground next to Gakushuu, still nervously chewing on his already red lips, letting his had hang carefully in the air like the silent compromise strung between them.

The metaphorical frost gave a little crack under pressure.

Gakushuu didn’t take the hand. 

But somehow, the frost held. 

Gakushuu got up off the ground, shoving the hand away in one swift motion, swaying a bit as he got to his feet. 

Karma was obviously concerned. This was mostly because he could compare the student body president to a sheet of paper. A little pale, and seeming to be delicately brushed away by a draft of gentle wind.

“ I don’t need your help.” He said, trying to sound firm, hoping he did as he saw Akabane about to take another step forward to help. Brushing his hand away was much more polite than to leave it hanging.

Karma furrowed his brows in confusion. 

“ How did you get here?” 

Gakushuu looked up at him while in the middle of dusting himself off, eyes wide and questioning, urging him to go on as he smacked the dust off his clothes in an attempt to make himself more presentable.

“ Recess started ten minutes ago,” Karma cleared his throat, clarifying his statement, “ It would have taken you more than that to get here from the main building.”

As Karma finished speaking, Gakushuu gave a glance back down as his clothes and mentally gave it a nod of approval, slamming his hand down on the cloth for one last smack before his gaze flitted back to Karma’s, slightly hesitant to speak.

“ I was in the infirmary.” There was no elaboration. Well, maybe another time. This was probably as civil as Asano. Jr was going to get.

“ Ah.” The trademark smirk slid right back onto Karma’s face where it belonged. It felt like coming home.

“ The Student Body Presidents’ been a very bad boy.” He leered, eyes filled with mischief, not afraid to give the newfound boundary between them a little push.

“ He snuck out of the infirmary,” Karma’s face made a dramatic morph into one of shock. “ Oh what has this school come to?”

Gakushuu gave a derisive snort in response. “ I know, right?” He sighed mockingly. “ An apologetic delinquent?” he folded his arms, huffing a little when a smile lit up his face as he threw out his next words, “ I think the world is ending.” 

The edges of Gakushuu’s eyes crinkled with mirth, the lines that once adorned the path between his brows had smoothed, his dark circles were almost unnoticeable this time, it gave him something akin to an innocent glow as his head tilted, every part of him just seeming to shine happily at Karma.

It felt like something was creeping along his skin. 

But, everywhere. 

It wasn’t a bad creeping, though, it wasn’t exactly a comfortable one. 

Feeling the warmth and the pleasurable buzz that hummed along with it he thinks that he might have to re-think that earlier thought.

He thinks, maybe things between them aren’t so bad.

At the same time, he thinks he needs to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this came out fine, I don't know how but I managed to churn out this entire chapter in an hour. I have shocked myself. Now I need to go practice before my violin teacher kills me tomorrow. As always, hope you enjoyed it!


	7. Chapter 7

The screeching sound of the school bell rang out around them, shattering the precious illusion of a moment. Birds flew out of the trees in vigorous protest at the sound, describing the exact feeling of disappointment most students felt upon hearing it. 

 

That sound set off alarm bells in Gakushuu’s own mind, ones that began to automatically shout what seemed to signal the end of the nurse's break to him. His head shot back to look at the direction the sound came from. The systems that had been up in running in his brain before seemed to ruthlessly clamp down on that newfound sense of freedom he had found, refusing to let go, not that any of the struggle had actually come to his attention. The only thing that was brought forth to the front of his thoughts with startling clarity was that he had to leave.

 

As the incessant ringing softened, muffled by the distance, Gakushuu turned to look back at Karma, wondering what to say, whether he should just leave. He should probably be nice and say something like a goodbye, or a ‘ see you soon’. But though there was a lack of animosity between them, he didn’t know if this could be defined as friendship, and he didn’t want to be the one to ask. Thinking this much made his brain hurt a little.

 

He was just going to go.

 

He stepped away from Karma, in the direction of the school. 

 

Something warm encircled his wrist, giving the flesh a slight squeeze as it clamped down. Gakushuu felt the heat rush to his face.

 

“ What.” 

 

Karma of all people stood there looking at him, lips slightly parted as if he wanted to say something that wouldn’t come out. Like something was choking what he wanted to say down, to keep Gakushuu from hearing it. 

 

Could Karma be asking him to stay?

 

“ Bye bye, Cinderella.” Karma said, just as that conflicted expression slid off of his face, replaced by a playful one. There was a chink in that mask though. Gakushuu knew that wasn’t what he meant to say, but nevertheless, the statement embarrassed him.

 

With his face still glowing hot and looking like a tomato, he whipped his hand away (like karma was), violently tearing it from Karma’s warm grip as he glared, as harshly as he could, hoping the image of something rough and prickly got across.

 

The other still looked unaffected.

 

“ I’m not.” with a huff, Gakushuu turned and left, leaving Karma to breathe in the dust he left in his wake.

  
  
  


Karma returned to a class of students who were still drunk on the happiness that resulted on their earlier victory. The bubbly atmosphere of the classroom got on his nerves, like the bubbles in champagne that burned the back of his throat when he downed it, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. Though, knowing now that he had in a way managed to salvage the not so friendship but more of a truce between him and Asano Jr. , a little bit of the warmth reached his heart, warming him up on the inside, loosening him up. He felt much better than he did before, at least.

 

“ There you are!” Sugino said cheerily, all smiles, rainbows and sunshine. He but one of the many that began to surround Karma.

 

Karma saw Nagisa discreetly slink into the classroom behind him. Now where did he go? Karma didn’t get the time to think about that because he was then under the spotlight of the class’s curiosity.

 

“ We’ve been looking for you.” He elaborated, “ We were thinking of having a celebration, but being the star of the show, we couldn’t really leave you out right?” 

 

The rest of the class shut their mouths, silently agreeing to what Sugino was saying, eagerly pressing forward, almost like a pack of wild hyenas. So of course he had to agree.

 

Just then, the slap of heels against wood could be heard, followed by a lingering smack. Everyone turned to see Irina-sensei, dresses as provocatively as usual, smack down a dark purple file that signal the start of what they thought to be the lesson. The tug of disappointment that weighed down their hearts was inevitable, showing itself in the form of the collective groans as everyone, shuffled like zombies back to their graves.

 

A tick seemed to have appeared above Irina-sensei’s sharp, blonde, brow, as she gained the sudden urge to torture her students for making it sound like her lessons were boring, maybe even implying that she was a bad teacher. She would have them know that she was probably one of the best. Much better than that perverted octopus or that expressionless Karasuma. She nearly made her mental harrumph audible.

 

Her gaze turned to the class, fixing on each of the students, running them through with the steely blade of her watchful, judgmental eyes. If it was anyone else but them, who were so used to such childish behavior form their teacher, they would have felt that the stare being thrust upon them would give a feeling akin to that of testifying in court. Having to watch what you said, what you did, and even what you thought, out of fear of the consequences it might bring.

 

Confidently, she stepped up in front from behind her desk, making it creak a little as she leaned back against the front edge, arms folded around her bust in dissatisfaction as she remembered her earlier conversation with her colleagues in the lounge.

 

Despite having been considered to know her well, everyone in the room could feel themselves sweat from the tension that washed over them as they wondered what Irina-sensei was thinking of that could possibly have her looking this uncomfortable.

 

Her eyebrows were like curtains as they drew closer, darkening not only her expression, but also the atmosphere.

 

_ “ Have you seen the examination results?” Karasuma’s voice picked up from behind her, shocking her. Not because she didn't expect to be here, but because she didn’t know Karasuma as one to be one to initiate small talk. His words sparked a sense of pride in her though, her head swelling so big it might explode. _

 

_ “ I did.” She was in the middle of arranging her lecture notes, punctuating those two words with a slam from the stack of papers she aligned by smacking their breadth onto the old, stained wood of the tables. “ What about it?” She pursed her lips, questioning the man that stood behind her, facing her back. _

 

_ “ They did well didn’t they.” Karasuma seemed to be getting at something, something in his tone hinting at a mystery Irina couldn’t quite unravel. She felt a little lost, she would admit to herself, but that also brought a bout of embarrassment that riled her up as she just hoped Karasuma would just say what he wanted to. _

 

_ She turned on him with a glare. “ What do you want.” she said, almost making it sound as if she were asking him to name a price to put an end to this horrible conversation. “ Out with it.” she ended with an ill-tempered huff, slamming the pile of papers on the table. _

 

_ “ Well, well, Irina-sensei.” The nasally voice that sounded put her on edge, feeling like something thick and sticky had been shoved into her ear, almost like someone who had a cold. The thought made her throat ache.  _

 

_ Her temper cracked like glass, as she gripped the green rubber knife in her pocket, hand lashing out like a whip in the direction the voice came from. Of course, the yellow creature was faster though, standing in front of her, instead of to the right where the blade had sailed through the air to dig itself into the moldy, peeling wall of the ill-maintained staff room. _

 

_ “ He put me up to this.” Karasuma popped in to add in his monotone voice.  _

 

_ “ Karasuma-sensei!” The yellow octopus switched targets, his attention now placed on the dark-haired teacher, his expression the same, but with an aura that screamed ‘Top 10 Anime Betrayals.” _

 

_ “ Well?” Irina leaned back on the coffee-stained desk, a sharp, blonde, brow, quirked in questioning. _

 

_ Koro-sensei began to sweat. Figuratively of course. With Karasuma’s unnerving indifferent stare and Irina’s heated glare, she was so mad he could probably feel the heat coming from her general direction, almost like the anger she held had been lit into something tangible, fire licking at the air around him. _

 

_ He spoke quickly. “ Well, the class did really well.” His yellow tentacles slid against each other, tangling as an accurate representation of his nerves, slick from the cold mucus-like sweat he was emitting. “ So I was thinking that for your lesson, since its the last lesson of the day, you could give them a free period to plan a celebration.” At the end of his mini-speech, the cold ;sweat had disappeared into thin air, an energetic smile lighting up the room as he excitedly relayed his idea, one that he evidently puffed his chest out at. _

 

_ With her icy blue eyes still fixed onto the form of the yellow octopus, she turned to the side skeptically, lips pursed in thought as her mind began to run. At this point she was already giving in, but didn’t want to let them think that she was the type of girl to just do whatever she was told to. _

 

_ “ Fine.” She bit out coldly.  _

 

_ The bell rang shrill and sharp, snapping them back to the reality of classes like a rubber band.  _

 

_ Without another word, she picked up the stack of files, slapped the pile onto her arm and clacked her heels against the peeling wooden floor on the way out. _

 

“ Free Period everyone, plan your celebration.” 

 

For the next moment, everyone just stared  at her in shock, the fiery embers that surrounded her in their original perception of her had slowly morphed into a glowing spotlight that shone down on her, her figure seeming to seep the same glow the moon did.

 

“ THANK YOU, BITCH-SENSEI!” The voice came like a slap to her face, the pain buzzing like one of those annoying mosquitoes that you could just never kill. 

 

“ Bitch-sensei, do you want to come too?”

 

“ Bitch-sensei-” She clenched her teeth in rage, the fists she made had her fingers kneading flesh as she contemplated shouting and ruining the mood.

 

“ SHUT UP! DON’T CALL ME THAT.” Her voice was lost in the crescendo of voices, their laughter bubbling over the sound of her rage. 

 

Giving up, she exhaled sharply and shifted back around to take her seat at the teacher’s desk, sliding the papers containing information of her next assassination target into one hand and silently skimming them.

 

She leaned back, making herself comfortable in the chair, as her eyes flit back up every so often to check on the little miscreants.

 

Well, the lesson wasn’t really much of the lesson, loud and lively, everyone sounded much happier than anyone could possibly feel during class. Irina left the class sometime part-way through. 

 

She gave a helpless shake of the head as she left the class, file clutched to her chest.

 

_ Kids. _

 

They decided to hang out after. Karma decided to offer up his house as tribute. His house was one of the largest ones among them, so it would only make sense to hold the celebration at his house, considering the sheer number of people in the class.

 

He wasn’t looking forward to anyone hanging around his house, or the possibility of them somehow managing to wonder over into his room and take a peek at all of his belongings; or veen the idea that they might be bringing booze and playing party games, because a large group of drunk teenagers could potentially cause a lot of damage to his house.

 

That was how Karma got to this point though. His house was sufficiently clean enough, so he didn’t bother with doing much tidying up, he lay on his couch playing on his nintendo switch while waiting.

 

The doorbell rang through the empty home.

 

He was jolted out of his game, fingers still tapping roughly on the worn buttons of his console.

 

There was a slight contemplation where he was wondering if he should get up to answer. He would but if he did, doing so during the intense boss fight would result in his death.

 

With a hard wall of apathy smacking him on the face, shielding him from a potential barrage of guilt and feels that he would rather avoid, he decided that, well, they could wait. His game was much more important.

 

The doorbell chimed a few more times, grating his ears. 

 

Gee, he gave a heavy sigh because what a childish thing to do. 

 

What Karma was doing was of course, in no way considered mature. But he didn’t care. And because he didn’t care the whole idea of maturity does not apply to him.

 

With one last dramatic flurry of fingers mashing down on the buttons, clicking away violently, the screen gave a flash of victory as he managed to slay the boss. 

 

It was just as this point in time where the sounds of his doorbell being rung had switched to the loud incessant banging on the wooden door leading up to his home. 

 

His parents would kill him if it were damaged.

 

“ Alright, Alright already.” He groaned loudly at the door as he switched off the console and threw it down to the black plush of the sofa where he once sat, it bounced up and around a few times before settling precariously along the edge, close to falling.

 

The banging on the door became louder as he walked down the hall and neared the door. The sound grated on his nerves, as he winced at the sensation of his eardrums being shoved through a meat grinder. 

 

“ Shut up! I’m unlocking the door.” He huffed. What was this anyways, did someone dare them to break down his door? Because if they were dared to do this, Karma would say that they were doing a damn good job at it.

 

He unbolted the door, the metal sliding to the side as Karma  _ could literally swear that he saw . . . a dent? Was that a dent in the metal? What the actual hell-  _ in the metal. To think that he had such a rowdy group of friends. Discourteous to the point that there was damage of property he could sue for even before they stepped into the house.

 

He shuddered at the smidgen of the thought of what would happen to his house when he did let them in.

 

The door seemed to shake under the tension of the banging, because even after him telling them to stop destroying his property, they refused to stop.

 

Now that the gates of hell were open, he regretted not keeping the bolt in place. Nice and snug between the strike plate. Where it was safe. Where he was safe. 

 

The first thing they did was flood past him, with a few comments about how nice and large his house was, some smacking him hard on the back which,  _ was probably hard enough to break a few bones if he weren’t so built, he could also probably sue for the physical assault to his person but because the great the Karma is o so benevolent, he shan’t,  _ but they simply played it off as a friendly pat on the back. Yeah right, He wanted to shove a few tubes of wasabi and mustard up their asses and call that a friendly screw. 

 

He shouted after them his previous concerns of the integrity of his household. He wondered if it would be upheld. Then wondered if it was his fault for inviting these people to his humble abode then expecting them to maintain its integrity.

 

That was when Nagisa appeared in all of his cute cinnamon roll glory.

 

With a happy innocent smile, the blue haired boy passed Karma a box of something. “ Housewarming gift!” He said. Karma took a glance at the white wrapping paper then was filled with curiosity at what was inside. But more than that, Nagisa was an angel.

 

“ Thanks!” He grinned back. He was sure Nagisa was the angel that the heavens sent to him to prevent the destruction of his house. 

 

Karma closed and bolted the door as he let Nagisa in first, the arm with the gift weighing uselessly by his side.

 

“ Now,” Nagisa started. Karma’s heart sank as the devil’s aura began creeping up and around his once innocent, angelic friend. Karma questioned why Nagisa was facing him with the intent he usually had during an assassination attempt.

 

“ Tell me why I saw you with the student council president the other day.”

 

**Fuck-**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: *Low-key ships Irina and Karasuma*   
> Also me: Hmmmm Karma reminds me of Deadpool . . .  
> Again me: . . . Why does Gakushuu remind me of Yagami Light?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I accidentally wrote crack, please send help.

The sky was clear, bright blue, wide and open, as Gakushuu held the same feeling in his chest despite the earlier altercation with the delinquent. For once he felt something similar to hope when he though back to the original reason he had run out here. 

Today had been the first time in his life he had gotten something even remotely similar to a win from his father. The best thing about being slapped in front of the class was that his father would have his precious image shattered because of it. It was of little consequence to Gakushuu, he was hit almost every other day anyways, the only difference was that this time, he got something in return for his efforts to endure the pain. His father couldn’t even punish him in the ways that mattered the most to him.

Though he loathed to admit it, he was similar to his father in the sense that both of them paid a large amount of attention to their image and the way that they portrayed themselves to society.

As long as he remained his father’s son to the public eye, nothing relating to Gakushuu’s current status could be controlled by his father without the bastard ending up destroying his own image.

Though it was worrying that he might be beat on again later.

He took these disturbing thoughts and shoved them far away, draining them out of his brain and throwing them someplace else. 

He was in a good mood, let’s not ruin that. 

He didn’t know where he was off to now though. 

Class had already started and someone was bound to notice that he had disappeared. There was a simple solution to that though. Gakushuu was unable to let anyone know that he was skipping but it wouldn’t matter if they remained unaware of his sudden rebellious mood. He could just tell them that he didn’t feel well at all so he went home to get some proper rest.

Simple. Sometimes, lying his way out was really the most convenient way to get things done. 

He just kept walking, the dull ache that previously seemed to forcefully pry open his cracked skull had begin to dissipate like fog as he spent more time in the outdoors. 

His only conclusion? Plants equal to oxygen, which equal easier to breathe, which means a higher concentration of oxygen in the blood, resulting in better functioning of his brain, making it more comfortable for the rattled cells that lie within.

Strangely enough, though he’s seen many documentaries of heavily forested areas being hard to navigate, he didn’t have much difficulty navigating this one. It could be because he was much more fit than the main characters in those shows the directors had decided to portray, or because the plants here were somehow well groomed despite having been given little to no care from the rest of society. His father sure as hell wouldn’t have spared even a dime to fund something that had to do with plants unless it had something in it for him.

He arrived at a small cliff, shoes tapping lightly along the edge in a daring act. It was rocky and solid, and a little sandy, he felt little grains of sand and soil grind against the bottom of his rubber soles. He stood in front of a tall tree that branched out like a dark green oversized umbrella, reaching out over him and providing a motherly embrace of shade because sometimes the sun just straight up stung. 

He peered over the edge with a curious expression, elegant eyebrows raised as assessed the danger it posed to him if he were to fall, shoving a hand into his left pocket as he pushed his right shoulder a little further forward than the left, letting it comfortingly weigh him back to keep the anxiety of falling at bay. It was only about three metres. 

There seemed to be a whole other section of the forest to explore beyond this point, but he decided that this was as far as he would go for today.

He swayed back and tapped back, his step light and quick like that of a dancer’s, as he jumped away from the edge a little and plopped himself down right below the tree. 

He leaned against the wooden trunk of the old tree, a leg propped up in a way that he would be mortified to be caught doing and enjoyed the view. Nap time.

 

 

“ So you ran into the student council president in a romantic setting, in the woods, and threw him?” Nagisa had his arms folded over one another, Karma focused on a particular crease in the white, cottoned, long-sleeve of Nagisa’s shirt, not willing to meet Nagisa’s raised eyebrow. 

Karma felt very harassed, the stare Nagisa was pinning him with felt like he was a witness up on the stand, with Nagisa as the judge. In other words, it wasn’t a fair trial. 

Everyone else was going about the party like they did, after Karma had spent minutes of his precious time threatening them against messing up anything in his house, he found a corner to settle down in. The chatter was loud around them, but Karma unintentionally blocked it out from the tension he was feeling. 

Nagisa stood in front of where he sat on the floor, cross legged, leaning against a corner and literally staring him down. The only reason they were still able to some form of conversation was because Karma was particularly tall while Nagisa was particularly short. 

“ I didn’t mean to.” Karma pouted, a heavy gloomy air of guilt setting around him in a thick fog, turning his head to the side as he spoke in an act of defiance, refusal to face Nagisa, he said it softly, as if he didn’t want Nagisa to hear. Because he didn’t, he would rather not be having this conversation at all, now, or ever. 

“ You didn’t mean to throw him?” Nagisa asked him incredulously. The red head could feel the burn in his cheeks shining through, the exact deep shade of red as his hair. He knew that Nagisa had meant no harm, it was an innocent question, Nagisa wasn’t as sadistic as him. Nagisa couldn’t be argued to be sadistic at all. 

“ I didn’t!” It was at this point in time that Karma raised his voice, snapping back and turning a few heads. Nagisa flinched and his arms nearly fell from the position they were folded in. 

He shifted to move back to leaning comfortably against the wall. The little devil in Karma found that Nagisa nearly falling over seemed to calm him a little, the scales were tipped slightly back into his favour. 

“ You didn’t what?” Karma’s heart skipped a beat as Rio’s lighthearted tone floated over from behind him. Was this cosmic retribution> This was cosmic retribution wasn’t it?

“ I didn’t watch Shokugeki no Souma.” Karma shot back, he could hear the gears in his well-oiled brain turning vigorously as he dug up a random answer. Just to make it more convincing, he added context as he turned to face Rio. “ Nagisa was just telling me how good of an anime it was. The pervert.” He gave a trademark smirk at nagisa, eyes creasing in incredibly fake amusement. He was actually screaming threats at Nagisa, if he did decide to give Karma away, not only was Karma going to forgo their friendship, he was going to find a way to brutally murder-

“ I’m not a pervert!” Nagisa mumbled to himself after. “ And it’s a legitimately good anime.” Justifying his preferences in a convincing manner. 

Looks like Karma wouldn’t have to do anything after all. He gave a large grin as he turned back to look at Rio, who was leaning curiously over his shoulder, eyes flicking back and forth between the both of them. Her hair streamed down in a curtain of bright golden hair.

As if nothing had happened to even draw her there, she turned and left, ribbons of gold fanning out behind her retreating figure. Karma let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

A thought struck him. Why was he so nervous about this in the first place? Did it even matter that he met with prez? The only reason he was nervous was because he was worried that he had said something wrong, but the blonde control freak himself was okay with it and nobody else was even aware of what had gone down between them. He had to reason to freak out in front of Nagisa. He had done nothing wrong. 

Except for colluding with the enemy. His previously helpful brain had curtly supplied, doing a 180 and rushing the fill the once vacant role of the devil’s advocate in his mind, pushing the thoughts into his mind.

But he didn’t care if he actually did. 

“ Sounds like you actually care about him.” The monotone voice had leashed him back into reality, chaining him down to the truth and nothing but. His golden gaze snapped back up to meet Nagisa’s in confusion. The words reached him, but only continued to float around uselessly in his brain. 

“ What?” He snapped back, maybe a little forcefully. Though that was one of the good things about Nagisa, his harsh tone was completely ignored. He didn’t have to address it, much less apologize. 

“ It sounds like you care about him.” Karma stared back blankly, his expression a continued facade, his brain slowly beginning to sink its roots into the words in some sense of understanding. The word ‘care’ seemed to have impaired his motor functions. 

Karma.exe is not responding. 

“ Asano-san.” Nagisa added once more, helpfully supplying his brain with the necessary information to establish a stable connection. Detecting the stall that had come to his mind, Nagisa weaved his way through to Karma’s consciousness. The polite little kid even added a ‘-san’ behind the asshole’s name.

“ Yeah. What about him?” Well aware that he was making himself sound stupid, he freaked out internally, the theorist side of him had completely thrown away that load of bull about him not having done anything wrong. While he might not have done anything to wrong the people around him, what about himself? He was destroying his own pride. It hurt in its own sort of way, like suicide. 

Nagisa rolled his eyes, finally fed up with Karma’s blatant avoidance. “ You care. About him.” He broke the sentence up again, as if teaching a toddler proper enunciation. 

Though Karma never really meant to avoid the situation or destroy his pride. Either way, acting stupid or admitting to his humanly nature crushed his pride into little smithereens. 

He didn’t really want to admit it. Actually scratch that, he didn’t care at all. Not in the I want to be your friend kind of way, but more in the get the hell out of my sight kind of way.

“ If you mean caring about whether the only person who could ever give me any sort of challenge or competition being in the right state of mind for a fair fight then-” Karma was pinned by a stare from Nagisa. Nagisa knew what this was, Karma was stringing together a needlessly long sentence because he didn’t want to admit that he cared. Even if he did admit it, he would painstakingly justify it to the ends of the earth. 

“ Yeah, I do.” Nagisa mentally pinched the bridge of his nose when he realised what a piece of work he decided to make friends with. Friends were supposed to help each other right? How was he supposed to help someone who was otherwise extremely intelligent but stunted with the emotional capacity of a butter knife? Karma cared more than he let on, he knew this for sure as a part of class-e, but just because he was aware of everything else, like how to solve a certain math problem didn’t mean he was aware of how he felt. 

It was the job of a friend to help him come to that realization. 

Karma was just making it difficult. Very difficult. 

A cacophony of metallic noises came crashing down on both of them, coursing through the life of the party as the chatter stopped, people turning their heads to look at the source of the noise. 

Karma, being the host and the owner of this beautiful house, began to worry once more about the safety of the place. Not worried for his classmates’ safety of course, but about the well being of his home. 

The noise came from his kitchen. His precious kitchen. 

Before Nagisa could say anything more, Karma had darted off in pursuit of the criminal who dared cause a disturbance in his kitchen. 

Looking on helplessly were a pair of soulful blue eyes, all the wiser to Karma’s sudden decision to exclude himself from the conversation. He heaved a sigh, the breath of life leaving him but hushed by the swelling murmurs of his classmates. 

The silence left hand in hand with Karma, leaving a troubled, lone Nagisa sitting friendlessly in a corner. 

On the other side of the ruckus a flash of red had caused Isogai to stumble back into the pile of pots and pans that gathered messily in a lump on the floor, making Karma flinch a little at the sound screeched loudly in his ear, bringing a phantom pain that was nearly tangible at seeing his precious equipment hurt. 

“ A-ah.” Isogai stared on with wide eyes, as if after making such a loud noise he didn’t expect the owner of the place to come running. He looked like an innocent rabbit, but no, he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. To Karma at least. And the only opinion that mattered to Karma was Karma. 

“ Karma-kun.” Isogai stumbled over the clutter, wincing each time metal hit metal in a way that didn’t sound right as he writhed under the glare of a mother Karma trying to protecc his precious babies. 

( OH no. This just cracced, in a very craccy way. Its cracc now. Its official. I have no control over this.)

The pots shone with unshed tears under the dim lights of the kitchen lights, glimmering out a pathetic sos to Karma. 

He tried his best to ignore the pained cries of his children. Nobody knew he liked cooking, he was going to keep it that way. 

“ I was trying to find the cups for water.” He tried to explain himself, hands drawing indiscriminate scribbles in the air in an attempt to illustrate the situation better. Obviously doing nothing to help.

Sweat began to bead on his forehead as nervousness had begun to rear its ugly head under the intensity of Karma’s likely homicidal glare. 

Karma turned his head bitterly, like a child that didn’t get the toy he wanted. Things just weren’t going the way he wanted them to.

“ I’ll get it. Out of my kitchen.” 

Isogai scurried out like an obedient dog, with his tail between his legs, making his way to the group of classmates he always hung with. He spoke loudly, voice melding into the crowd’s. “ Guys, I thought I was going to die-”

But Karma was no longer paying any attention. He fell to his knees in front of his precious cooking materials and discreetly hugged them to his chest. 

“ Never again.” He whispered, eyes screwed shut in misery. 

( Okay I need to stop)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay maybe not so accidental but I still need help XD


End file.
